At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas last weekend, a spokesperson praised the President of the United States Joe Biden’s The government failed to “attract” the majority of Americans to be vaccinated Coronavirus disease.
“Obviously this will not happen,” said author Alex Berenson. Won the applause and cheers of the crowd.
Despite the best efforts of some health and government officials, blatant hostility to vaccination has taken root among some conservatives in the United States. Experts say this trend is extremely difficult to overcome due to severe political polarization and the spread of misinformation.
“It comes down to trust,” said Colin Furness, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto. “Remember, a large number of people think that the election (for the 2020 president) is fraudulent. Do you think they will believe what the government tells them? I don’t think so.”
COVID-19 cases are on the rise in the United States. Will this affect the reopening of Canada’s borders?
Canadian experts said they are increasingly worried that the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the United States may affect the reopening of the border. These travel restrictions may be lifted in mid-August, According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — As long as the vaccination rate remains stable.
The increase in the number of infections is mainly driven by vaccine resistance, and recent opinion polls show that this is divided between parties.
Recent Washington Post-ABC News Poll It was found that 86% of Democrats had at least one dose of the vaccine, compared with 45% of Republicans. When it comes to those who say they will definitely not be selected, 38% of Republicans say so, while only 4% of Democrats hold the same opinion.
Vaccination statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention It seems that the poll data is being backed up.
Only five states have not yet reached the 50% threshold for at least one dose of vaccine among eligible people—Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Wyoming, and Idaho. All five voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 and are led by the Republican state government. Other states that are below the national average also tend to be Republicans, including Tennessee and Missouri.
As of July 16, 2021, a breakdown of vaccination rates for eligible people (12 years and older) in each state in the United States.Alaska, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico are separated from the continental U.S.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Nationwide, 56.5% of Americans 12 years and older received two doses of the vaccine, and 65.2% received at least one dose—still below Biden’s proposal to vaccinate at least 70% of Americans by July 4th The goal of the vaccine. Management has also fallen by more than 80% from its peak in April.
At the same time, COVID-19 cases have risen again. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, as of Friday, the number of new infections per capita in the country has jumped by at least 120% in the past 10 days.
At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director, warned on Friday that “there will be a pandemic in unvaccinated people”. According to the CDC, more than 99% of COVID-19 deaths and 97% of hospitalized patients are not vaccinated.
The largest increase in cases last week was in Florida, which accounted for nearly half of the total number of actors in the country. But at the same time, Governor Ron DeSantis is selling goods It says “Don’t Fauci My Florida”, referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser.
Rear Biden announces door-to-door campaign In order to reach unvaccinated Americans, Texas Rep. Chip Roy released a revised version of the famous “Come on” banner. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia referred to these activists as Nazi brown shirts.
Misinformation also spread in the right-wing media. Fox News host Tucker Carlson sometimes suggests The vaccine didn’t work at all. “They just didn’t tell us”, although he also insisted that he supported vaccination. At the same time, the host of Newsmax, who is farther to the right than Fox, said in the live broadcast that the vaccine is “against nature”. The network later became estranged.
Although these reactions are considered a matter of personal freedom and excessive government intervention, political analysts view them more cynically.
“The Republicans are determined to deny Joe Biden any success. Their best election strategy is to make sure that Joe Biden looks bad,” said Matthew Leiber, a professor of political science at Western University. “This means not helping the economy, not helping voters, not helping the epidemic disappear.
“They say’socialists are forcing you to take action.’ The ultimate goal is to make the Democratic Party an enemy. But this will only make the vaccine an enemy.”
Some Republicans tried to emphasize the importance of vaccinations, including the party’s top senator Mitch McConnell expressing confusion About resistance. But Lebo doesn’t think this will work.
“People watching Fox and Newsmax didn’t listen to Mickey McConnell’s songs,” he said. “Trump denied him, so his supporters also denied it. Now, Trump’s supporters are not saying the right thing.”
trump card, Who was vaccinated privately in January Shortly before leaving the White House, Tell his supporters occasionally Get vaccines in speeches and media interviews. But he also said that this should be a personal choice and did not participate in public service announcements made by other former presidents or current Republicans.
Shannon Macdonald, a professor at the University of Alberta who specializes in vaccine hesitation, said that it is much harder to convince people to accept what they completely resist, rather than to persuade those who are concerned.
She added that door-to-door propaganda may help influence some of these hardliners, but only if these activists provide practical and useful information.
“‘Do you know you are eligible?” “Do you know where to take pictures?” “Do you need to take a ride to that place?” “These are all good questions,” she said. “But a stranger walked to the door and said,’The vaccine is safe and effective, you should get the vaccine,’ and this will only bring people deeper.”
She warned that this is still not enough to completely reverse the situation.
“If this is part of their identity-‘I am a Republican and the Republicans I support say we should not be vaccinated’-then it will be extremely difficult,” she said.
“The only way to really change this situation is for people with this identity, especially leaders with this identity, to change their position on this issue.”
Lebo said that the possibility of this happening is very small, but the premise is that “has experienced a lot of unnecessary pain and torture.”
“We may reach the point where Republican leaders realize,’Wait, the Democrats are not sick, all Republicans are not vaccinated,'” he said. “Then maybe they will start telling people to vaccinate (vaccinate).
“But the story of the past two years is that people in the hospital died of this disease. Say in one last breath,’How can this happen? It’s all a scam. So I am not too optimistic that this madness will be broken soon. “
Although there are some vaccine resistance in Canada, it is not that common.Only 9% of respondents The latest Ipsos Global News Poll Said that they would never get shot. The poll did not ask for party affiliation.
Conservative bases such as Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have higher vaccination rates than other provinces. Now, more than 60% of eligible Manitoba people have been fully vaccinated, more than all jurisdictions except the Northern Territory.
MacDonald also pointed out that although Some U.S. Republicans opposed vaccinating children — Even for those who qualify — Alberta’s youth vaccination rate is the same as that of adults.
Furness said that before more Americans are vaccinated, it may be necessary to introduce mandatory rapid testing to ensure that people entering Canada will not spread the virus.
He also hopes to impose restrictions on those who have not been vaccinated, including mandatory isolation, which he said will help inspire American travelers to eventually get vaccinated—and at the same time increase the likelihood of illness.
He said: “It is increasingly difficult for these people to defend against not being vaccinated or pretending that COVID is not present.”
“Unfortunately, the United States will see a larger wave of infections (compared to Canada) among the unvaccinated people, which will be frightening.”
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